"Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) began his federal court defense of a state law requiring people prove citizenship when they register to vote, but his first witnesses failed to make a compelling case.

Kobach, who claims nothing short of requiring proof of citizenship can prevent noncitizens from voting, presented two experts whose conclusions were challenged, and a voter who explained how she managed to overcome the voter registration requirement without documents.

The ACLU is suing Kobach over the 2013 law, saying it’s unnecessary and has blocked at least 35,000 people from voting. The ACLU finished its case on Monday, giving Kobach the opportunity to defend the law, which a federal judge blocked in 2016 pending the outcome of the trial. Kobach, who is representing himself in the case, claims as many as 18,000 noncitizens are on Kansas voting rolls, and proof of citizenship can prevent that from happening.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, testified he saw no statistically significant difference in voter registration from 2010, before the law, to 2014, after it took effect on Jan. 1, 2013, according to The Witchita Eagle.

An ACLU witness pointed out last week that Camarota’s analysis assumed the only thing that changed from 2010 to 2014 was the proof of citizenship law, and failed to account for such variables as the competitiveness of Kansas elections in that time, according to KCUR.

Camarota said he didn’t need to control for other factors in his analysis, Talking Points Memo reported.

Jesse Richman, a political science professor at Old Dominion University began testifying at the end of the day Monday, but his testimony was quickly derailed when the ACLU objected he was presenting data not included in his report, according to Talking Points Memo.

Richman’s testimony prompted a scolding from U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, KCUR reported. The professor continued speaking over the judge, arguing his new numbers should be included. But Robinson, who has rarely lost her patience during the trial, snapped at him, according to ProPublica. The judge earlier in the trial reprimanded Kobach and his legal team for failing to follow evidence procedures."

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SoS Kobach is fighting the good fight so that you have the right to not vote as the state law says.

Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

TPM is following the case with an updated blog, full of the sort of unintentional humor that results when right-wing fantasy orthodoxy runs smack into reality.

Like:

QuoteThis afternoon, as ACLU attorney Dale Ho continued his scrutiny of the research methods employed by Jesse Richman in a report alleging statistically significant rates of non-citizen voter registration in Kansas, Ho turned attention to Richman’s methodology in one of his analyses.

Specifically, Ho asked Richman about his effort to code respondents who had “foreign”-sounding names for weighting purposes in his survey. Ho played video from Richman’s previous deposition in which Richman said that the process was “very subjective” and that he was sure he made mistakes.

After going over some of the names Richman coded as foreign — two respondents with the last name Lopez were coded as foreign, and three Lopezes were not — Ho asked Richman how he would code the name “Carlos Murguia.” Richman said he’d probably code the name as “foreign.” Ho pointed out that Murguia is a federal judge in the same courthouse in which the trial is taking place. Richman admitted he wasn’t aware of that.